Whatever Conrad Black's Sins (and He Once Stole Pounds 20 From Me), I'm Unhappy About Sacking Him

Summary

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THE first time I met Conrad Black, the newspaper tycoon sentenced on Monday to six-and-a-half years' jail for fraud, he stole Pounds 20 from me. Perhaps 'stole' is too strong a word, but I'll tell you what happened and you can judge for yourself.

We were at St Stephen's Club, Westminster, at a dinner organised by the T.E. Utley Memorial Fund (UMF), a charity set up in memory of my late father, of which Lord Black is a trustee.

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Whatever Conrad Black's Sins (and He Once Stole Pounds 20 From Me), I'm Unhappy About Sacking Him

It was the night, 15 years ago, of a knifeedge Commons vote on the Maastricht Treaty and John Major's Government faced the real possibility of defeat.

Someone at our politically-obsessed table suggested a sweepstake on the outcome of the vote. So the 20 of us chipped in Pounds 1 each except Conrad, I remember, who staked a Canadian dollar (worth less than ...

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